CLIENTS
Our Clients Are Important To Us
On this page you can find information about some of our clients and how they have benefited from Clinkscale Coaching. Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the coaching process, this is only a sample of the feedback and client testimonial we receive.
Client Organisations Helen Has Worked With
Testimonials
The feedback I have received from clients in different organisations includes:
"I have been working with Helen over the past few months, I would thoroughly recommend her services. Helen is a highly experienced practitioner who provides well researched, insightful and bespoke solutions to suit customer needs. She is highly personable and a joy to work with." John Crawford, Scottish Development International
"Helen has been my coach for the past year. During that time I successfully secured a new role in a new sector. I can honestly say that I would likely never have taken this leap had it not been for Helen's coaching and the self-awareness (and I've got to say, self-acceptance) it has given me. I have greatly valued our conversations and as I reflect back on them I can see how key they have been both in taking this step and securing my new job. Thank you Helen! Richard Kyle, Professor of Interprofessional Education, University of Exeter.
"Alongside her considerable technical expertise Helen brings a combination of warmth, encouragement and positive energy to her coaching which never fails to inspire and motivate".
Stephen Connelly, Executive Coach, Edinburgh
"Helen exudes natural warmth and empathy, a highly enlightened and transformational coach who puts people above time. Been a privilege to know her". Ali Mehdi, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, CD, Orthopaedics, NHS Borders. Expert Witness, Exec MBA Candidate, WBS London
"Working with Helen has been a joy. Each interaction revealed new insights on better strategies to improve efficiency and better returns on investment, improve relationships with internal and external partners, all achieved while taking steps to mitigate against personal work related stress."
Nadine Dougall, Professor of Mental Health & Data Science, Edinburgh Napier University.
"Helen is generous with her time, empathy and warmth and creates a coaching space full of trust and honesty. I found her coaching methods creative and insightful. I never knew where our sessions would take us which was inspiring! I attest to Helen's coaching, she is the ideal blend of patient v strong. A precious commodity. Alyson Russell-Stevenson, Director at Scottish Enterprise.
!If you are after a coach who is insightful, challenging and encouraging in equal measure then you couldn't choose better than Helen. Helen worked with me over recent months to explore a number of issues and to set my sights on new challenges. The experience was invaluable and re-energised me for a fresh future. I couldn't recommend Helen more highly." Brian Williams, Head of Health & Social Care Sciences. UHI
"I have been working with Helen as an MBA student for more than one year. Helen offers an incredibly helpful, competent and professional coaching and supported me in difficult career decisions. I am very grateful for having Helen as my coach and would absolutely recommend her to other professionals of different industries." Dr Phillipp Hessmann, MD
"I worked with Helen at the very beginning of my career in HR and L&D. 12 years on, I approached Helen for executive coaching as I have always held Helen in the highest regard and couldn't think of a better coach. Helen has helped me in so many ways by simply listening, understanding, challenging my thoughts and offering words of wisdom to help me achieve my goals. It has been a fascinating experience to uncover the many layers that make up a personality and understand what makes me tick whist recognising the traits of other personality types to help me build and manage relationships. I always feel energised after a session with Helen." Laura Neish, HR Manager, South of Scotland Enterprise.
"Helen is an excellent coach -easy to build a rapport with, full of useful tools and techniques to help you assess how you handle things and she really helps you focus on the areas you wish to improve in. I have no hesitation in recommending Helen for executive coaching." Carolyn Stewart, Chief People Officer, Scottish Enterprise.
The coaching environment has been calm, supportive and positive while allowing free expression in the sessions. The work done during the sessions have been invaluable and have provided me with insight and a series of tools to equip myself for the future. Helen has been a wonderful coach she is friendly and the ultimate professional. Her knowledge is vast and her ability to enable others to reflect and build their own insight and leadership abilities has to me been invaluable.
In terms of the impact and benefits I have gained from the coaching sessions established in my coaching plan, I feel like a different person in many terms. Now I feel that I have started to blossom again, my spring has sprung! I can see my worth. Coaching has helped energise me, I have my oomph back and once again I’m happy and excited to come to work. The coaching relationship has been fabulous, and so supportive, the use of all the different tools has nurtured me to see my full potential.
Helen has provided valuable coaching support to a member of my team which has enabled them to gain better insight into themselves, their impact on other and their career plan going forward. Not only has this been a positive experience for the individual, but it has also developed the relationship between the employee and line manager enabling the service to move forward with a new invigorated energy and enthusiasm
Helen has a very positive and supportive approach, and she is talented at working with people and is a good listener. Helen summarises well and closes with a focus on action plans and ‘what are you going to do’ questions to facilitate progress. A coach should be highly treasured; they are independent, the environment allows open discussion free from colleagues, managers, peers. We all need a safe space like that to explore concerns, approaches and challenges. I have found my sessions with Helen very valuable.
Case Study
"Helen has provided me with very insightful executive coaching over the past six months. Helen is a warm and empathetic person and we easily made a good connection from our first session onwards.
The aspects I've most appreciated in Helen's approach are;
1.) She brings fresh insight, even when I've struggled to articulate what's on my mind she's good at unpicking the key themes and providing different perspectives that I hadn't thought of. She doesn't rely on proven but basic models such as GROW, there are many tools in her armoury!
2.) Her coaching is grounded in well-researched and proven methods(such as Myers Briggs). She's very knowledgeable about these frameworks and is able to use these to give insight that's practical - geared towards helping me improve my performance at work.
3.) She's honest with her reflections - I was particularly impressed when she once listened carefully to my situation and openly shared that she's change her impression based on my description, she's good at knowing when there are things in my control or outside of my control and how best to respond.
Type of Coach - Helen is very good at encouraging you to be your best. She's a a supportive advocate in your corner, helping to motivate me ahead of a job interview by believing in me and my abilities. I've had other coaches previously that take a very direct, officious and challenging approach, this isn't Helen's style. She will probe and hold the mirror up but in a diplomatic way. She's also willing to share personal anecdotes where it helps me as the client relate to my own situation, we happened to have quite a similar personality style.
I could tell that Helen really cared about my situation and the outcomes of our coaching. She checked in with me to see if I got the job I was going for (and I did!) She wasn't concerned if sessions ran over time if the discussion was valuable and we remained in touch even during the weeks between coaching sessions. I'd recommend Helen as a coach to others, she's very good at what she does.
Ben Hutchinson, MBA Candidate, Warwick University
"The main development needs that I had prior to entering into the coaching relationship were the lack of confidence in my ability and the habit of procrastinating resulting in being extremely pressure prompted. I also avoided situations that required me to speak to large numbers of people in a work setting.
Working with Helen has helped me address all of these issues. Through the use of recognised tools and explorative conversations, Helen helped me recognise my strengths and how I could explore and capitalise on these while also recognising that my areas for development were not insurmountable and could be improved.
Through the coaching sessions I have increased in confidence by having greater insight into what I am capable of. The position I held was that of an ‘acting’ one so when I was working in my peer group I always felt apologetic and that my opinions and contributions were not of much value. Having spent time with Helen developing my strategies in dealing with peers and more difficult individuals I now feel far more capable in these situations. I have been asked to lead on a number of projects and work streams and I have taken this learning and enabled me to be a far more confident leader. I no longer feel that I have to refer to those with more experience or whom I perceive to have greater ability.
If I had not engaged in coaching with Helen I would not have been encouraged to apply and be successful in another period of acting up to another senior role. Helen enabled me to see what I have achieved and how significant those achievements were rather than me belittling myself.
My team recognised the positive changes in me. Through discussions and asking for regular feedback they identified that I had become far more structured in my approach, adopting techniques that Helen had shared with me. They described me as ‘refocused’ and rejuvenated’ and that had an overall positive impact on the team and the direction of the organisation.
The coaching relationship Helen and I developed was extremely effective and beneficial. I found Helen’s style to be very supportive however she challenged me to view myself, my purpose and my ability in a constructive manner. Helen had many anecdotes and examples that made the theory live and I was able to translate this into my working environment.
Moving forward Helen has renewed my enthusiasm for learning and actively seeking out challenging situations, knowing that I have the ability to succeed. I have secured a new role in an environment that is entirely different for me and have applied the techniques I was introduced to by Helen. This has enabled me to engage my new team and firmly establish me as the leader of that team. Early feedback from my team and manager is that I have managed this successfully.
I believe I have benefited significantly from the coaching that Helen and I engaged in, addressing the main difficulties that I had.
Helen is an excellent coach who was patient and understanding, in addition to be encouraging and driving me to succeed".
Sharanne Finlay, Divisional Head, Scottish Prison Service
"I undertook executive coaching with Helen during a very challenging time for our organisation. There was a need to be focused, to manage important relationships and crucial conversations, as well as maintaining the need to prioritise and deliver key organisational requirements under difficult circumstances.
The coaching took the form of six sessions, which quite methodically helped me to gain better perspectives on key aspects of work. These included developing a better understanding of workplace relationships and communication, understanding oneself better and how one is seen in the workplace. To help achieve this, Helen used the Myers Briggs Type Inventory tools as part of her coaching offer and from there, I was able to observe my place in the world with a more objective perspective.
Helen demonstrated a keen interest in my professional development and used an extremely varied toolbox of communication skills, supporting me at all times throughout the coaching programme. Using feedback and updates from the workplace, Helen was very skilled in supporting me to apply techniques learned to real-life situations. For example, gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of power and the use of theory and tools for managing behaviours in meetings and the wider workplace.
I benefited from Helen’s coaching, both on a professional and personal level and consider her to be a most committed practitioner, who takes her profession seriously and invests her skills in supporting people to achieve the best possible outcomes”.
